My Cat Has Acne. And other stories.

I have been sober for 10 days. Quite the achievement for somebody whose response to any situation is to celebrate (or commiserate) with a beer. Or wine. Or prosecco. Or gin. Good day at work? Have a drink. Bad day at work? Have a drink! Cat fallen out of the bedroom window again? Drink. You’ve washed and dried four loads of washing? Drink. You finished watching every episode of 13 Reasons Why Season 2 and only cried 8,362 times? Drink. I honestly don’t know where the huge shift in my brain has come from and yet alcohol is no longer the centre point of every activity; I’ve even managed to attend a beer festival and a cider festival over the bank holiday weekend and enjoy the ambience (or lack there of in one case) with a coke or a coffee. However, while I’ve been focused on not drinking (and prior to this point, focusing on drinking), I have let my physical health slip and that needs to change as I can’t focus on being the best version of myself if I’m not nourishing my body, ...

Wow, last night was a night full of alcohol free firsts! In fact, there were even some general firsts in there too! Waking up this morning, without a hangover and still buzzing from the sheer brilliance of the night before is verging on addictive. Last night was the first time I have ever been to a metal gig. Yep. A genre of music that I enjoy, that for some reason or another, I had never found myself stumbling upon was made possible by the epic guys from Black Hawk Down who had reached the semi-finals of the Metal 2 The Masses competition and an opportunity to win a slot at Bloodstock festival (9 th – 12 th August, Catton Park, Derbyshire, check out the website here ). To support my non-drinking, I offered to be one of the many drivers who took a huge group of amazing people on a roadtrip from Stamford to Nottingham. Not that my non-drinking needed any support this weekend as the switch in my brain appears to have been fully clicked into place whereby alcohol doesn’t ...

                                           I'll stick to making it for other people to drink :) I haven’t really written anything for the last six months bar the occasional drunken rambling trying to put some order into everything that has happened in such a short time. I, of course, haven’t been able to. Everything is still chaotic, discombobulated and too painful and so, in true K style, I’m going to skirt around everything that happened and pretend it hasn’t. So what’s this about then? Well, it’s about the sudden realisation that I have buried my emotions underneath a carefully crafted facade of caring for other people for six months. I have pushed aside my pain to support others in theirs. I’ve ignored it, limboed under it, run from it. And recently, those people I have thrown my soul into supporting… Welllll, they are recovering and don’t need my masking ministr...

Three years ago today, I was woken up in the early hours of the morning by a repeated hammering on our front door. Three very scared and half asleep women stumbled around trying to pull their clothes/dressing gowns on to answer the door in the dead of the night, to be greeted by two police officers looking for our house mate. I knew immediately what had happened. I can’t explain why. Maybe it was the look on their faces. Maybe it was their insistence on entering her room (which I wouldn’t allow). Maybe it was knowing my friends history. I rang my friend every twenty minutes throughout the rest of the night. In the morning, it was confirmed. Her beautiful Mum had died. I didn’t know her Mum that well, yet the grief that engulfed me for my friend and her heartbreak was all consuming. Mental health had played a role in her Mum’s death, alongside a significant role throughout her life and in the aftermath, it played a role in ours too. We both LOVE Christmas and this time ...

In light of Morrissey’s recent interview with Der Spiegel where he pedals hate about “not very credible” sexual harassment claims and abhorrent views on multiculturalism, I’m finally going to write about #metoo and not just because of Morrissey’s dickish views but also because of the views of a male panel on Have I Got News For You where the female anchor (Queen Jo Brand) had to explain to them that multiple low level offences leave women feeling under siege, alongside many conversations I have heard recently, generally between men, where sexual harassment claims are dismissed as attention seeking behaviour and Lena Dunham’s recent dismissal of claims based on the alleged perpetrator being her mate. Imma stop you there, and here’s why. Morrissey says in his interview (which for clarification was google translated from the original German interview and so may not be grammatically correct) that, “Anyone who has ever said to someone else, I like you, is suddenly being charged with ...

kindness NOUN 1 The quality of being friendly, generous, and considerate. ‘he thanked them for their kindness and support’ 1.1   A kind act. ‘it would be a kindness on your part to invite her’ Kindness is as simple as being nice to one another, a selfless act that doesn’t take time or energy and is just a part of who you are. It is the easiest thing in the world to hold a door open, give a compliment or volunteer your skills; and research has shown that exhibiting kindness is a major contributor towards your own personal happiness. “How to Make Friends and Influence People,” has been used in business circles for self-development since its first edition in 1936. Yep, 1936. In the first Chapter, “If you want to gather honey, don’t kick over the beehive,” the first key point is to be kind and to avoid criticism, condemning and complaining. How many times have people criticised, condemned or complained to you this week? How many times have you done this to other peopl...

I am writing today to avoid updating my CV. I hate CVs. I love other people’s CVs, of which I also have a stack to get through today, but I hate updating mine. I guess it comes down to being easier to sell other people than it is to sell yourself. I could really do with the ability to be objective right now! So instead, I am procrastinating. I am procrastinating because somebody told me last week that they wished I used my education and stayed in a career. Direct quote. It became apparent that people have no concept of how the tertiary sector works these days and the fact that I have survived on fixed term one year contracts for the last ten years is ignored. It is practically impossible to get a mortgage on a fixed term contract, even when you’re earning 30k a year. It’s impossible to think about starting a family knowing that your contract will end either before you go on maternity leave or while you are on maternity leave and this is not a position that you can start a fami...